Development Manager - Firmware

Welcome to our World of Cold!
At AoFrio, we are global leaders in providing IoT solutions to the food and beverage industry. Our innovative technology and dedicated team have positioned us at the forefront of our market. We are proud leaders in hardware-enabled Software as a Service (SaaS) for commercial refrigeration, with cutting-edge IoT solutions used by major brands worldwide, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Heineken, and Nestle. With offices in four countries and a dispersed team across 12 countries, we are truly global.

The role
As the Embedded Software Manager, you will lead a busy team responsible for delivering high-quality, reliable embedded firmware. Your focus will be on creating clear priorities, supporting the team to deliver, strengthening engineering practices and ensuring work is ready for integration and release.

This role needs a leader who understands how engineers think. You will bring a strong engineering background, sound technical judgement and a practical leadership style that helps people work through constraints, make good decisions and keep delivery moving.

What you’ll do

• Lead and support the firmware team, balancing delivery priorities, technical quality and team wellbeing.
• Create clear plans for firmware development and release cycles, with visibility of progress, risks and dependencies.
• Build a strong delivery rhythm across a busy workload and help the team respond effectively when priorities change.
• Partner with Hardware, Mechanical, Product and other engineering leaders to resolve cross-team constraints and integration points.
• Champion reliable firmware engineering through clear standards, architecture guidance, disciplined documentation and fit-for-purpose validation.
• Use lean-agile principles to identify bottlenecks, improve flow and support practical problem-solving.
• Coach and develop engineers, build capability and create a collaborative, learning-focused team environment.
• Contribute to technical roadmaps, platform investment decisions and opportunities for product improvement.

You will need

• A strong engineering background, ideally with a degree in Engineering or a related discipline.
• Technical leadership experience in electronics product development, including leading and developing engineers.
• Strong experience with embedded systems and the delivery of complex products.
• A practical understanding of firmware architecture, electronics, operating system configuration, drivers and device services.
• Experience planning and delivering work in a fast-moving or high-volume environment.
• Confidence managing competing priorities, dependencies and delivery risks across multiple teams.
• Experience with lean-agile development and continuous improvement.
• Clear communication, strong problem-solving skills and the ability to connect technical decisions with product and business outcomes.

Why AoFrio?
We’re proud leaders in hardware-enabled Software as a Service (SaaS) for commercial refrigeration. Our cutting-edge IoT solutions are used by major food and beverage brands worldwide, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and AB InBev.

With offices in four countries and a dispersed team across 12 countries, we’re truly global. We manage supply chain, logistics and R&D for our family of hardware and software products from our headquarters in Albany, New Zealand.

What you’ll enjoy at AoFrio

• Health Insurance: Enjoy Southern Cross WellbeingOne, all covered by AoFrio.
• Health & Wellbeing: EAP support for staff and their direct family, plus yearly flu shots.
• Flexible Working: Flexible hours and the freedom to adjust your schedule when life calls for it.
• Work From Anywhere: Work from anywhere in the world for up to four weeks per year.
• Volunteer Day: One paid day each year to support a cause, charity, school, community group or initiative that matters to you.
• Family Matters: 16 weeks of top-up payments for the primary carer and four weeks’ pay for partners.
• Investing in You: Individual funds are available for your professional development.
• Commute: Free parking and free EV charging.

Diversity in Tech at AoFrio
At AoFrio, we are committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive culture. We actively welcome women, members of the rainbow community and other minorities into the world of technology.

Don’t tick all the boxes? Don’t worry, we’d still love to hear from you. As a modern global organisation, we integrate work into our lives and focus on achieving outcomes. We want to work with individuals who have diverse needs and backgrounds, so please let us know how we can make it work for you.

Ready to help a talented engineering team deliver its best work? Apply now to join AoFrio as our Development Manager - Firmware.